In the first 20 years of devolution, we have pretty much solved a challenge that Wales has faced during the course of deindustrialisation, which is a higher level of unemployment than the UK average. We brought it down to the UK average and, indeed, on many occasions in the last year, it's dipped below the UK average, and for the first time, as I say, again, inactivity rates have fallen to the UK average.

So, what we've done over the past 20 years, on a macro level, is resolve unemployment and worklessness. However, that's in the whole. What we now wish to do is drive inclusive growth so that we get deeper into the roots, get into the communities that have not benefited so much from the fruits of our growth over the last 20 years, and ensure that equality and inclusive growth are at the heart of everything we do. Now, regional place-based economic development is absolutely crucial, particularly where you don't have the effects of agglomeration, and you don't tend to get the effects of agglomeration in urban areas of less than 0.5 million people. That's why we developed within the EAP the new regional units, that's why they are developing, in conjunction with local authorities and city and growth deal partners, regional plans—so that we can all work together to the same purpose to design interventions to make sure our investment is directed at the same purpose within each of the regions so that we're not competing, so that we're not duplicating but so we're all working to the same ends. And it's my view that, by having a place-based approach, we will be able to better identify the opportunities, the entrepreneurs, the businesses that can drive inclusive growth in the regions of Wales.

I have to say that, in terms of supporting small indigenous businesses, we've done a fantastic job in recent times through Business Wales and, more lately, through the establishment of the development bank. We've heard questions today about the Afan valley and my colleague Dai Rees's local authority of Neath Port Talbot, where we've seen an 18.8 per cent increase in the number of businesses since 2011, up from 6,455 to 7,670. That is not an unusual picture in Wales. We now have a record number of businesses in existence in Wales. The key for us in the next stage in turning the dial through the economic action plan is in ensuring that we turn more of those small businesses into stronger grounded firms, bigger grounded firms within Wales, and so that we ensure that employment is more sustainable in the long term and that we are capturing as much of their spend as possible for local communities.